Your WWAN port is the Msata port via the same PCI-E port. Normally it's empty an empty slot unless you are running a wireless network using a wirelss lan card. I think it's still a SATA II port on the W530 series vs. a SATA III port in the standard HDD slot. WWAN and WLAN use the same port. WWAN has a wider bandwidth (different card) but essentially the same function with different bandwidth and coverage.

You could consider the WD Black2 for the main bay. It's a SSD and 1TB hard drive mash up. I had one in my desktop and it offered decent performance, but it would leave the PCI slot for WWAN. If you can drop the optical drive, which would free another drive bay.

hellosailor wrote:
Does that mean there is a "WWAN" cellular modem, including the built-in GPS functions, which will have to be lost? Or does the WWAN in the mSATA slot also contain my normal Wifi radios as well?

Nope.

If there's no card in the mSATA slot you'll lose absolutely nothing. No GPS etc.

Your wireless card is in an entirely different slot and has nothing to do with this upgrade path whatsoever.

...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Thanks, guys. I have used the manual, and I have gone into tpads before, but I prefer to not open one up "just to check".

So far there's a split opinion as to whether the cellular modem and gps, preconfigured on this machine, are or aren't considered as the WWAN card mSATA.

That's what I'm trying to find out. I don't see any other mention of them being physically installed anywhere else, perhaps I missed it.

I specifically didn't mention the primary drive or the disc drive because those aren't relevant here, I've already done what I want to with those. I'm looking specifically at adding an SSD to the mSATA slot, and whether that will force the removal of the cellular modem, which as I understand it is one and the same board as the GPS.

"The only good silicon life form, is a dead silicon life form." [Will Rogers]
-- Harboring a retired T61P with Vista/U/32 and housebreaking a younger W530 foolishly upgraded from Win7/64 to Win10.

Hans Gruber wrote:The WWAN port is essentially to turn your laptop into a wireless radius server. Totally different than a wifi adapter. I have yet to meet someone with w WWAN card in their thinkpad.

Just as I read what I wrote I got a T61 in the mail today with a WWAN card inside. It also had a 4965AGN wifi card already. Based on the size of the of the heatsink, it appears to be integrated graphics and not Nvidia. It had 2GB of ram and fortunately it was a 2GB stick of ram. I had only one 2GB backup stick of the DDR2 memory.

hellosailor wrote:Hans-
What does your WWAN card say? Anything about "Gobi" or cellular?

There was no "gobi" in the *61-series days. One got a pre-configured WWAN service which in most cases meant Verizon or AT&T in the U.S., Rogers in Canada and Vodafone in Europe. These machines will also bark with a BIOS error code if one installs a non-approved WWAN card.

Starting with *10 series, WWAN is optional on ~95% of the *real* ThinkPads that Lenovo offered, and includes the antennae but not the card itself. This approach allows for more flexibility if one is configuring their own WWAN, or travels a lot and has to use different carriers.

Once again, you can find out whether your "new" ThinkPad has a WWAN card installed in less than 5 minutes. Out with the battery, RAM cover and keyboard and it will all be there for you to see.

...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

George, it is even easier than that. Since there is an AT&T SIM card provided with the computer by Lenovo, I *know* there's a cellular modem card in there, and since those are apparently always called a WWAN adapter and apparently always installed in the mSATA socket (when available)....

Don't really want or need to disassemble the computer for this. Don't like to lift the hood at all, unless there's a real good reason for it. I need this one to be working properly, don't need to take risks with nudging a ribbon cable or dropping a screw, small as they may be. (The risks, not the screws.)

"The only good silicon life form, is a dead silicon life form." [Will Rogers]
-- Harboring a retired T61P with Vista/U/32 and housebreaking a younger W530 foolishly upgraded from Win7/64 to Win10.

hellosailor wrote:George, it is even easier than that. Since there is an AT&T SIM card provided with the computer by Lenovo, I *know* there's a cellular modem card in there, and since those are apparently always called a WWAN adapter and apparently always installed in the mSATA socket (when available)....

Don't really want or need to disassemble the computer for this. Don't like to lift the hood at all, unless there's a real good reason for it. I need this one to be working properly, don't need to take risks with nudging a ribbon cable or dropping a screw, small as they may be. (The risks, not the screws.)

Does the machine have an OS installed right now?

...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Forgive my poor Engloish, George. When I said I need this one to be working (THIS ONE) and not to TAAKE ANY RISKS, I thought it was clear that I am talking about the machine I cam currently USING, so yes, it had darn well better have an OS installed on it. Probably the OS in my sig line.

Unless, as I said, it was abducted and probed by aliens, or the TSA is correct in assuming there's a bomb inside and it only *looks* like an OS is booting and running.

As I also said before, the OS doesn't seem to refer to any equipment as "WWAN" or "mSATA" unless that's some other view in Device Mangler [sic] that I've not seen.

"The only good silicon life form, is a dead silicon life form." [Will Rogers]
-- Harboring a retired T61P with Vista/U/32 and housebreaking a younger W530 foolishly upgraded from Win7/64 to Win10.

hellosailor wrote:Forgive my poor Engloish, George. When I said I need this one to be working (THIS ONE) and not to TAAKE ANY RISKS, I thought it was clear that I am talking about the machine I cam currently USING, so yes, it had *****Expletives removed by Moderator***** well better have an OS installed on it.

Not for nothing, but what's with the attitude? Both of us have been on this forum for quite some time...

Probably the OS in my sig line.

I don't see an OS of any kind listed in your sig as I'm posting this...

As I also said before, the OS doesn't seem to refer to any equipment as "WWAN" or "mSATA" unless that's some other view in Device Mangler [sic] that I've not seen.

Control Panel>Device Manager>Network adapters. If it's not there, and there are no unknown devices to be found then...I'd venture a guess that the actual card is not installed, regardless of any SIM that you might have found.

Presuming that your Hotkeys are working, Fn+F5 will bring up the WWAN option if there's an actual card installed.

...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

Sorry, George, It has just been a long week and I'm always off my feed when 20 posts still manage to not answer what seems a simple question. I'll have to find out where my sig line went off to.

FNF5 does nothing, at least not in Win7/64 here.

I thought I'd gone over the Device mangler before. It does not list a WWAN adapter, however, it lists the Sierra/Gobi card and two miniport adapters, and I believe is simply doesn't use the ambiguous "WWAN" designation when the specific Sierra card is installed.

If there is only one "WWAN" socket, and that is the mSATA socket, and the cellular modems always install in that same socket--never an unmentioned other socket--it sure seems that the rest is all a matter of every party calling the same thing by a different name.

"The only good silicon life form, is a dead silicon life form." [Will Rogers]
-- Harboring a retired T61P with Vista/U/32 and housebreaking a younger W530 foolishly upgraded from Win7/64 to Win10.

hellosailor wrote:Sorry, George, It has just been a long week and I'm always off my feed when 20 posts still manage to not answer what seems a simple question. I'll have to find out where my sig line went off to.

No harm done. I know I've had my fair share of "those" days myself...

FNF5 does nothing, at least not in Win7/64 here.

You're missing the Power Manager, Hotkeys or both...

however, it lists the Sierra/Gobi card and two miniport adapters, and I believe is simply doesn't use the ambiguous "WWAN" designation when the specific Sierra card is installed.

Well, if it lists the Sierra card, you know that the slot is populated.

If there is only one "WWAN" socket, and that is the mSATA socket, and the cellular modems always install in that same socket--never an unmentioned other socket--it sure seems that the rest is all a matter of every party calling the same thing by a different name.

Now, the real question here - and the one that you'll have to answer for yourself - is whether you're intent on actually utilizing WWAN. My understanding - which may be incorrect since I never use WWAN on my own machines - is that the GPS function will not be enabled unless you're actually subscribed to a carrier service.

...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

"You're missing the Power Manager, Hotkeys or both..."
Power manager is here for sure, and if "hotkeys" is a Win7 standard feature (as opposed to a Lenono quirky accessory) that should be here too. All the normal Win7 features are installed and enabled, unless something killed it.

"Well, if it lists the Sierra card, you know that the slot is populated." Right, that was part of the question up front, whether the Sierra card was or wasn't installed as a "WWAN" card in the mSATA socket. "WWAN" is such a broad term it is meaningless. Some of the cell phone companies at one point were trying to push some kind of wifi-on-steroids with enough range for an entire city, and call it WWAN not so long ago.

"whether you're intent on actually utilizing WWAN. My understanding - which may be incorrect since I never use WWAN on my own machines - is that the GPS function will not be enabled unless you're actually subscribed to a carrier service." I can assure you, I was tickled pink to find out this is "real" GPS, not A-GPS, and there's a Lenono applet that allows you to use the GPS all by itself. I can always tether off the cellphone, but having a GPS in the computer makes it much easier than plugging in an external one if I'm running a mapping application.

"The only good silicon life form, is a dead silicon life form." [Will Rogers]
-- Harboring a retired T61P with Vista/U/32 and housebreaking a younger W530 foolishly upgraded from Win7/64 to Win10.

hellosailor wrote:"You're missing the Power Manager, Hotkeys or both..."
Power manager is here for sure, and if "hotkeys" is a Win7 standard feature (as opposed to a Lenono quirky accessory) that should be here too. All the normal Win7 features are installed and enabled, unless something killed it.

I was referring to Lenovo's utility. Without it, Fn+F5 does nothing.

" Right, that was part of the question up front, whether the Sierra card was or wasn't installed as a "WWAN" card in the mSATA socket. "WWAN" is such a broad term it is meaningless. Some of the cell phone companies at one point were trying to push some kind of wifi-on-steroids with enough range for an entire city, and call it WWAN not so long ago.

You're referring to WiMax, not WWAN. Two completely different things.

WiMax was offered on ThinkPads and it was working off of Intel WLAN cards that were WiMax-capable. WWAN always meant a separate card, although the architecture has changed over the years.

I can assure you, I was tickled pink to find out this is "real" GPS, not A-GPS, and there's a Lenono applet that allows you to use the GPS all by itself. I can always tether off the cellphone, but having a GPS in the computer makes it much easier than plugging in an external one if I'm running a mapping application.

Well, I just learned something new. Thank you - good to know for future reference.

...Knowledge is a deadly friend when no one sets the rules...(King Crimson)

George, for no good reason FNF5 worked "as expected" tonight, the Lenovo applet which in this case (choice) brings up radio controls. WiMax, yes. Isn't that just one more type of Wide Area Wireless LAN, aka WWAN ?

"The only good silicon life form, is a dead silicon life form." [Will Rogers]
-- Harboring a retired T61P with Vista/U/32 and housebreaking a younger W530 foolishly upgraded from Win7/64 to Win10.

This thread is a flashback. Back when the T61 was shipping new was right around the time in personal computing when everyone wanted to be online at all time and at almost any cost, but Hotspots where not always easy to find yet. The discussion here about the beeping BIOS especially had me cracking up.

I always used a PCMCIA card. The earlier models had the little antenna sticking out with the red tip at the end of it.